NEW: ICE officials have started to implement a policy that allows officers to arrest and rapidly deport undocumented immigrants who have been in the US for less than two years, according to internal emails and documents obtained by BuzzFeed News.
The shift could allow the Trump administration to increase deportations while circumventing a court system that is severely backed up and short on resources, but advocates for immigrants have said it would destroy their due-process rights.
We got the internal emails and guidance memos on this policy, just issued late last week.
What we found:
ICE officers cannot revisit cases of immigrants who are already in deportation proceedings & cannot quickly deport people who can prove they were in the US before July 23.
Officers can decide not to use expedited removal in cases in which immigrants have “mental competency” issues, the immigrant is the sole caregiver of a US citizen child, or if they are a crime victim or witness to a crime, among other exceptions.
ICE attorneys will initially review all cases in which deportation officers aim to use the new policy before immigrants are quickly removed from the country.
The question advocates/experts have been asking since this policy was first considered has been: how is it going to be deployed?
Well, ICE's acting director tips off just how.
The undocumented immigrant must AFFIRMATIVELY prove they have been in the US for 2 yrs. The immigrants can use bankbooks, leases, school records, employment records, or other materials to prove their presence in the country, according to the memo.
The election in November will ultimately determine whether ICE will use this long-term. VP Biden will likely not allow this policy to continue.
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Acting DHS Sec. Wolf echoing comments we've heard since 2018 --- that ICE will be forced to do more at-large arrests due to "sanctuary policies" that limit jail cooperation with immigration enforcement. He says that as a result of this collateral arrests will increase.
Wolf highlighting a few of the arrests individuals with more serious criminal records --- unclear the full breakdown of this operation and each individual's past.
Wolf slams sanctuary policies and tells these communities to do their "job" --- notable that local law enforcement has said that these policies help them in their local criminal investigations because of the trust it creates in immigrant communities.
NEW: ICE arrested more than 100 immigrants across California in an operation last week, the latest effort by the agency to target the state, according to a source w/ knowledge of this operation.
The details of the operation, which occurred last week in Northern and Southern California and were described to BuzzFeed News by a source with knowledge of it, are expected to be released in a news conference on Wednesday in Washington, DC.
ICE’s acting leader, Tony Pham, and Chad Wolf, the acting Department of Homeland Security secretary, plan to slam local officials for so-called “sanctuary” policies.
NEW: DHS officials acknowledged that transfers of detainees between facilities holding immigrants for ICE had “contributed to outbreaks” of COVID-19 & that poor information sharing made tracking the virus more difficult, according to a report I obtained.
The move is the latest salvo in the wars over so-called “sanctuary cities.”
The administration has released “reports” on counties with sanctuary policies and has tried, often unsuccessfully, to sue them and strip them of federal funds.
This latest effort, however, was viewed by some as inappropriately politically motivated: 1 month before the election the agency paid for the billboards in a crucial state, and one where President Trump was down 9 percent among likely voters in a recent Washington Post-ABC poll.
Unprecedented: ICE is launching billboards in Pennsylvania with the faces of immigrants who have been released by local police departments under so-called sanctuary policies.
Years ago, I wrote about a similar tactic used by police in the Bay Area who used billboards and websites to shame alleged 'johns':
Legal experts raised serious legal concerns with the tactic.
"My major concern is that they are posting pictures of persons who have just been arrested and charged, not convicted. There could certainly be some innocent persons in the group," one expert told me at the time.
Consider that even though the cap was dropped to (a record low) 18,000 last year, the administration had resettled around 9,000 by late last month. google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.…
The impact to the US refugee system, which relies on local and national organizations to help refugees resettle, will be long lasting.